Category Archives: Holly Jolly Trolley

“Opened in 1970, we originated from the efforts of a few dedicated neighbors who wanted to help people in their community who were struggling to secure the food they needed.”

A few good neighbors and some hard work is all it took to start Lakeview Food Pantry. Now it is one of the largest and most successful pantries in Chicago! Between two locations, they serve over 1.5 million pounds of food each year and are one of the founding organizations of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Their original building is at 1414 W. Oakdale Ave. but they have a newer building at 3945 N. Sheridan Rd.

In addition to having fresh food, they offer tons of services like job application help, mental health counseling, among other things to help the people in their community stand on their own two feet and become a more independent member of society. The organization doesn’t ignore the fact that many of its clients might have other issues than just hunger and they want to help those issues at their core. It’s programs like this that help Lakeview Food Pantry standout.

Being one of the most successful food pantries in Chicago, Lakeview Food Pantry takes a lot of man and woman power to keep it running. They now have over 1,000 volunteers operating for both locations. Volunteers of any age are welcome but special restrictions are put on people younger than 16. T

Have you ever attended an event, like a wedding or funeral, and wondered what happens to all those flowers after everyone goes home? What about flowers in grocery stores and flower shops, that are not longer fresh enough to sell? In what may be the ultimate in recycling, “Random Acts of Flowers” takes those flowers and repurposes them into something beautiful and inspiring!

Think about the joy you experience when you give or receive flowers. That’s the joy that volunteers with “Random Acts of Flowers” get to experience regularly.

The non-profit began in 2007, in Tennessee, by Larsen Jay. After a near fatal accident Jay credited the daily visitors and dozens of floral arrangements he received as being a crucial element to his recovery. Once able to leave his room, Jay noticed many other patients sitting alone, in rooms devoid of flowers. He began going around the hospital gifting some of his floral arrangements to other patients and was struck by the effect it had on them That’s when the seed for “Random Acts of Flowers” was sewn.

Today this wonderful non-profit has expanded and now has five branches around the country, including Evanston, Illinois. Teams of volunteers do everything from refreshing the flowers that have been donated, then creating them into beautiful bouquets and arrangements and finally bringing them to patients. Nurses and caregivers in healthcare facilities and nursing homes identify patients who seem in need of an extra emotional boost.

And science bears them out. Research shows that patients who receive flowers recover more quickly and require less post-operative pain medication.

We’ve all seen that the beaches and lakes across the country can get pretty dirty. In the Midwest, that’s where the Alliance for the Great Lakes comes in.

Founded in 1970 by Lee Botts as the Lake Michigan Federation, it focuses on not only protecting the Great Lakes, but also keeping them healthy and safe. They’ve led many campaigns and succeeded including:**

Championed federal ban on microbeads in personal care products like face wash and toothpaste, preventing the tiny plastic particles from entering the Great Lakes;

Released groundbreaking report calling for permanent separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins to prevent inter-basin transfer of Asian carp and other invasive species;

Won a historic cleanup goal for Lake Erie, which is plagued each year by toxic algal blooms, when the governors of Ohio and Michigan joined the premier of Ontario to commit to a 40% reduction in nutrients into the lake by 2025;

Their flagship program, Adopt-A-Beach, gathered around 15,000 people to volunteer. Cleaning beaches and data collection are the main things accomplished every year.